State says Wolf can’t run

It’s bad enough for his gubernatorial campaign that the State Ethics Commission ruled state Sen. Dan Wolf can’t try to advance to the next political base.

Edward F. Maroney

EDWARD F. MARONEY PHOTO

OVERRULED? – State Sen. Dan Wolf, speaking at a recent meeting in Hyannis on long-term care.

Unless he steps away from Cape Air

It’s bad enough for his gubernatorial campaign that the State Ethics Commission ruled state Sen. Dan Wolf can’t try to advance to the next political base. But the Commission also says it may throw Cape Air’s founder out of the political game altogether.

“Under the law, unless Cape Air’s contracts with Massport are terminated, the legislator must choose between his public office and retaining his financial interest in Cape Air,” the Commission declared Aug. 2, giving Wolf 30 days, with a possible extension, to act.

“If the legislator chooses to retain his current position and dispose of his entire ownership interest through a transfer to his immediate family,” the Commission ruled, “such transfer will need to satisfy the requirement that he entirely and irrevocably relinquish his financial interest in Cape Air.”

In a statement, Wolf disagreed with what he called “an unfortunate conclusion based on a flawed process,” saying such a standard would “prevent any successful businessperson who may have even tangential business interaction with the state from entering public life.”

Wolf said he would maintain “my ambitious campaign schedule and have an open, transparent conversation with the voters about this and every issue…”

In its ruling, the Commission said it was responding to the senator’s request for advice regarding the conflict of interest law. In his statement, Wolf wrote that his office had contacted the Commission “out of an abundance of caution” to see whether his approximately 23 percent share of Cape Air and serving as governor would create a conflict.

Wolf said the initial conversation with staff “led me to believe that no such conflict would exist, reiterating an informal opinion regarding the state Senate before I was first elected in 2010.”

In a press statement on Aug. 8, the Commission took exception, saying that it did comment in 2010 but that it included advice “to check whether Cape Air has any contracts with the state, since Mr. Wolf is not allowed to have any interests, direct or indirect, in state contracts.” It was in 2013, the board said, that Wolf provided the contracts with Massport. At no time through the process, the Commission stated, was Wolf “led to believe that no conflict existed.”

The Commission reasons that Cape Air’s contracts with Massport for use of Boston’s Logan Airport give it a financial interest in those agreements, giving Wolf as part owner “an indirect financial interest in those contracts…”

In his statement, Wolf said the Cape Air contracts with Massport date to 2002, renew automatically, and are based on fees not negotiated but set by federal law for all airlines. “Neither Cape Air nor Massport have taken any affirmative action on these agreements since 2002,” he said.